March 2014: The Secretariat of the Basel Convention has released draft Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of Wastes Consisting of, Containing or Contaminated with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), for comment by parties and others. The six technical guidelines were prepared by an intersessional working group chaired by Canada.

The intersessional working group was established at the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Basel Convention in 2013, and is expected to complete its work by COP 12, convening in 2015.

The six guidelines are comprised of: general technical guidelines for POPs waste; technical guidelines for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) waste; technical guidelines for polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) waste; technical guidelines for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste; technical guidelines for pesticides waste; and technical guidelines for unintentional POPs. [Basel Convention Press Release]